In the two-piece container industry for food and beverages, cans are generally constructed by merging metal cups with corresponding lids. Because of the metal (e.g. aluminum and steel) construction of these cans, a special chemical cleaning process is generally used to ensure the cans are suitable for storing food and beverages. The cleaning process is performed by a can cleaning system that generally includes a washer and a dry-off oven. The can washer generally includes several stages: (1) one or more hold down belts that prevent cans from being blown upwards, (2) one or more belt stripper/blow-off stages, (3) one or more blow-off nozzle stages, (4) vacuum or magnetic transfer stage, and (5) one or more jam detector stages. The dry-off oven generally includes a heat chamber with a height adjustable dryer plenum. It is desirable that each of these stages be adjustable to accommodate and allow for proper operation with a specific sized can.
Currently, the method of making adjustments to these stages require manually adjusting a mechanical lever or hand crank for each stage to accommodate various sized cans. This manual adjustment generally requires the use of multiple machine operators, and takes hours to properly set the height for a desired can size and is not easily repeatable. What is needed is a system and method that can be used to adjust the different stages of the can washer and/or dry-off oven with a single machine operator and in a repeatable and accurate manner.